Attorney General: Nurse failed to give life-saving care

Friday

Jun 6, 2014 at 2:00 AMJun 6, 2014 at 8:16 AM

KINGSTON — A former head nurse at Golden Hill Care Center in Kingston failed to follow the wishes of an 80-year-old resident and the directive of the nursing home, failing to administer CPR when she stopped breathing and leading to the patient's death in January 2013, according to the state Attorney General's Office.

BY JAMES NANI

KINGSTON — A former head nurse at Golden Hill Care Center in Kingston failed to follow the wishes of an 80-year-old resident and the directive of the nursing home, failing to administer CPR when she stopped breathing and leading to the patient's death in January 2013, according to the state Attorney General's Office.

Patricia Smithmyer, 53, is charged with first-degree falsifying business records, a felony; and willful violation of health laws, a misdemeanor. She faces up to four years in prison.

In 2013, Smithmyer collected $57,190 from county coffers, according to records, before the nursing home was transferred into private hands in June 2013. She worked for the private entity for a time but was let go before the end of 2013.

The failure to offer life-saving care came despite requests from the resident and her family that life-saving procedures be used if the need arose, according to a release by the AG's office.

The resident, who the AG's office hasn't named, suffered from Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease and Alzheimer's disease. While the family and resident requested the care, the home's protocol also called for life-saving procedures unless the resident had a Do Not Resuscitate order in effect. Here's the sequence of events, according to the AG's office:

On Jan. 8 last year, the resident went into respiratory distress and Smithmyer, the supervising nurse on the shift, was called to her room. The resident stopped breathing while Smithmyer and other staff members were in the room. As the supervising nurse and an RN, it was Smithmyer's duty to commence life-saving measures. Even though she knew the resident had requested CPR, Smithmyer failed to commence CPR and, despite being asked what to do by the other staff members, did not direct anyone else to initiate it. The resident was pronounced dead a short time later.

In the home's investigation into the incident, Smithmyer provided a false written statement in which she claimed that she was not in the room when the resident stopped breathing and was only told about it some minutes after it happened.

Smithmyer was arraigned Thursday in Kingston City Court before Judge Lawrence Ball and released on her own recognizance.